1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for treating water and other liquids by shattering their molecular arrays to remove minerals in solution and entrained gases. The shattering of the molecular arrays of the water or other liquids allows the gases to escape into the atmosphere while agglomerating the solids for easier removal through settling and/or filtration. Furthermore, the reduction of the molecular arrays into free molecules or small clusters of molecules increases the ability of the water or other liquids to diffuse through permeable solids which, in turn, increases the pressure exerted against a permeable solid as the water or other liquid passes through it. Additionally, the present invention kills bacteria in the water or other liquids through compression which ruptures their cell structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Certain characteristics of water and other liquids containing entrained gases (e.g. CO.sub.2 and/or N.sub.2) and dissolved minerals (e.g. Ca and/or Fe) have been discussed in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,521. Further testing has revealed new information and uses for the basic apparatus disclosed therein. Although the apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,521, may be used to alter the molecular array of any fluid to disentrain gases and agglomerate solids, the fluid described will be water for ease of disclosure and to aid in the understanding of the invention.
The molecular structure of water in liquid form is typically a tetrahedron made up of five individual H.sub.2 O molecules bonded together such that one H.sub.2 O molecule is positioned at each leg of the tetrahedron with a fifth positioned at its center. The individual H.sub.2 O molecules aggregate into a tetrahedron because of an affinity for one another due to their hydrogen bonds. Furthermore, the tetrahedrons of H.sub.2 O molecules have a similar affinity and, thus, also aggregate. Accordingly, when water remains relatively quiescent, the tetrahedrons of H.sub.2 O molecules associate to form a plurality of large arrays of bound H.sub.2 O molecules. As the arrays of tetrahedrons increase in size, the ability of the water to diffuse through permeable solids decreases because many of the large arrays of bound H.sub.2 O molecules do not readily pass through the permeable solids.
Additionally, with the above-described molecular configuration, impurities enter the liquid water in the form of entrained gases and dissolved elemental minerals. That is, in addition to the individual H.sub.2 O molecules which make up liquid water, impurities such as gases and minerals also bond with the individual H.sub.2 O molecules to fashion part of the tetrahedral arrays. However, the bonds formed between the H.sub.2 O molecules, gases, and minerals throughout the arrays are the weak bonds developed from valance electron sharing. Thus, the operation of the nozzle arrangement disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,521, functions to break those weak bonds formed between the H.sub.2 O molecules, gases, and minerals when the water is relatively quiescent.
My U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,521, discloses and describes a pair of vortex nozzles which are similar in construction and operate to impart a rotation to water passing through them. The nozzles are positioned in an opposed relationship so that the water streams exiting the nozzles rotate in opposite directions. The nozzles further function to expel the oppositely rotating water streams at a high velocity to collide the two streams at approximately halfway between the nozzle outlets. That collision between the counter-rotating streams creates compression waves throughout the water which coupled with the high velocity of the counter-rotating streams imparts a large amount of kinetic energy to the H.sub.2 O molecules, gases, and minerals. In addition, the compression waves produce a shearing action which aids in tearing apart the molecular structure of the liquid water. Thus, the compression waves and resulting increase in kinetic energy facilitates the breaking of the bonds between the individual H.sub.2 O molecules, the H.sub.2 O molecules and the entrained gases, and the H.sub.2 O molecules and the dissolved minerals.
Specifically, the compression waves alternately compress and expand the H.sub.2 O molecules, entrained gases, and dissolved minerals, thereby, increasing their individual temperature. That increased temperature is reflected by increased electron energy and activity in the valence shells of the bonded H.sub.2 O molecules, gases, and minerals. Because the added heat has no release into the atmosphere, the temperature of the H.sub.2 O molecules, gases, and minerals continues to accumulate further increasing valence electron energy and activity. The accumulated heat/energy can only be dissipated through the release of the excited valence electrons. However, any release will break the bonds between the H.sub.2 O molecules, gases, or minerals sharing those valence electrons, and further, will cause the breaking of some of the bonds formed between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms comprising the H.sub.2 O molecules and the atoms comprising the gas molecules. Thus, at a point when sufficient heat has accumulated, valence electrons will be released to become free electrons, breaking the bonds formed between the H.sub.2 O molecules, gases, and minerals. The initial breaking of a few bonds weakens other bonds which, aided by the shearing force of the compressional waves, facilitates the further release of valence electrons, thus, rending the arrays formed of tetrahedrons of bound H.sub.2 O molecules and breaking the liquid water into its constituent parts (i.e. H.sub.2 O molecules, hydrogen atoms, oxygen atoms, gas atoms, and minerals) and free electrons. The release of electrons is of extreme importance because it creates many ions, both positive and negative in the water.
The above constituent parts, upon exiting the vortex nozzle arrangement, begin to recombine, however, only individual H.sub.2 O molecules and the individual tetrahedrons of H.sub.2 O molecules reform because the increased energy imparted to the system has shattered the large arrays of bound tetrahedrons of H.sub.2 O molecules, released entrained gases, and agglomerated minerals dissolved in the water. The H.sub.2 O molecules remain free or aggregate into only the individual tetrahedrons because the bonds holding the large arrays together were shattered as described above and the water must remain quiescent for an extended time period (approximately 3-4 weeks) before the large arrays will reform.
Accordingly, the ability of the water to diffuse through permeable solids increases because the smaller sized individual H.sub.2 O molecules and individual tetrahedrons of H.sub.2 O molecules, when compared to the large arrays of bound H.sub.2 O molecules, experience less resistance from permeable solids as they pass through them. In other words, the smaller size of the individual constituents comprising the water permits the water to more readily pass through permeable solids. Consequently, increased amounts of water flow through a permeable solid during a given time period. That increased rate of flow of the water through the permeable solid (i.e., the rate of diffusion) produces a corresponding increase in the pressure exerted against the permeable solid as the water flows through it (i.e., the osmotic pressure).
The entrained gases release to the atmosphere because the ionized gas atoms resulting from the collision of the water streams as described above combine with other atoms or ionized atoms and free electrons to form gas molecules. The formed gas molecules have increased energy and molecular movement which provide them with sufficient force to escape from the liquid water and return in their gaseous form to the atmosphere. The minerals agglomerate to appear in the liquid water as solids because the individual ionized elemental mineral atoms combine in sufficient numbers to form either a solid element or a solid compound depending upon the particular atoms involved. My U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,521, therefore, softens water by releasing entrained gases and agglomerating dissolved minerals. Additionally, my U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,521, increases the diffusion rate and, thus, the osmotic pressure (i.e., the pressure required to prevent diffusion during osmosis) by shattering the large arrays of bound H.sub.2 O molecules so that free H.sub.2 O molecules and individual tetrahedrons of H.sub.2 O molecules remain.
An improvement over U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,521, is disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 5,318,702, which includes a pair of vortex nozzles of essentially identical design which impart a rotation in the same direction to water passing through them. The nozzles, however, are positioned in opposed relationship so that the direction of rotation of the water streams exiting the nozzles is opposite. The nozzles are each provided with at least one pair of slots which extend through the wall of the vortex nozzles. Each individual slot communicates with a chamber about the vortex nozzles which in turn communicates through a conduit with the exit stream of the nozzles. The addition of the slots to the nozzles enhances the performance of the nozzles disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,521. Namely, additional entrained gases are removed and mineral agglomerate size is significantly increased, while still providing an increased diffusion rate and, thus, osmotic pressure.
The slots operate to remove a fraction of the water from the rotating streams as they circulate about the nozzles prior to expulsion. The bled-off water, which is a product of interface chemistry, is then reintroduced via the chamber and conduit of each nozzle to the single water stream created beyond the impingement point of the two counter-rotating streams. In removing a small portion of the water from the two streams rotating about the vortex nozzles, the slots, essentially, bleed-off some H.sub.2 O molecules as well as many of the free electrons and elemental ions created through the collision of the two counter-rotating streams. That occurs because the bond breaking process described above in reference to my U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,521, is not limited to the impingement point of the counter-rotating streams. The compressional waves which are largely responsible for the increased kinetic energy and shearing effect that destroy the bonds between the molecules and atoms continually travel throughout the two rotating streams. This means that the compressional waves break bonds at any location in the input water streams, thereby releasing free electrons and creating positive and negative ions throughout the entire input water streams.
The slots in removing H.sub.2 O molecules, free electrons, and ions from the two rotating streams serve a twofold purpose. First, the extraction of H.sub.2 O molecules, free electrons, and ions enhances the ability of the compressional waves to further separate the liquid water into its constituent parts because their removal weakens the remaining bonds. The remaining bonds are weakened because the removal of charge (i.e. free electrons and ions) from the rotating streams creates a charge void which allows the orbital distances between the bonded molecules, atoms, and valence electrons of the atoms to lengthen. Larger orbital distances mean that the cohesive forces keeping the molecules and atoms bonded together and the valence electrons orbiting about their atom's nucleus are greatly diminished. That translates into a lower energy threshold which must be overcome by the kinetic energy and shear forces of the compressional waves before bond breaking occurs. Thus, the weakening of the remaining bonds results in significantly larger numbers of broken bonds and attendant release of free electrons and creation of ions.
Second, the reintroduction of the H.sub.2 O molecules, free electrons, and ions at a location beyond the counter-rotating streams' impingement point significantly increases the removal of entrained gases and agglomeration of the minerals. As previously described, the gas atoms and ions and free electrons combine with sufficient energy to escape the bonding forces of the liquid water and, therefore, return to the atmosphere. The mineral ions also combine to form elemental or compound solids. By introducing more ions and free electrons after most of the recombining has occurred, the above process which results in the escape of entrained gases and agglomeration of minerals continues even further.
For example, once several ions have formed a solid compound, the charge of that compound is balanced, or in other words canceled to zero. However, when free electrons or other ions are introduced, the electrically balanced compounds are prone to capture free electrons and once again become ionized. The re-ionized compound will seek an introduced oppositely charged ion or previously formed compound in an effort to balance its extra charge. Once an oppositely charged atom or compound is found, the two particles will bond, thereby, creating a solid compound larger than before. That bonding process will continue as long as additional free electrons and ions are introduced by the slots which means that repeated passes through the nozzles will improve the results. Thus, it should be apparent that rather large elemental or compound solids will be formed during the operation of the slotted nozzles. Such solids are easily removed by settling or filtration. The introduction of slots into the nozzle arrangement, therefore, greatly enhances the removal of entrained gases and significantly increases the ability of the minerals in solution to form solids and further agglomerate.
While both my U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,521, and my U.S. Pat. No. 5,318,702, are effective in removing entrained gases and minerals in suspension, it is desirable to produce nozzles which remove even more entrained gases from solution, increase mineral agglomeration to enhance their removal by filtration or settling, and produces a high degree of reduction in the size of molecular arrays found in liquids. My new invention provides a new nozzle design which accomplishes that. While the primary focus of my invention is in the treatment of water primarily for human consumption, it should be understood that other liquids may be treated in like manner for various purposes, many of which were discussed in my earlier patents.